underthrow
underthrow verb: to throw a pass that falls short of the receiver. (May take either the thrown pass or the receiver as its direct object.).
Verb
underthrow (third-person singular simple present underthrows, present participle underthrowing, simple past underthrew, past participle underthrown)
- To throw a pass that falls short of the receiver. (May take either the thrown pass or the receiver as its direct object.)
- The underthrown pass was knocked down.1960 December 27, Joseph M. Sheehan, “Eagles Win, 17-13, To Take Pro Title”, in The New York Times
- During the Jets’ recent 1-3 slide, Favre has repeatedly missed and underthrown receivers on his way to a single touchdown pass and six interceptions.2008 December 26, Joshua Robinson, “Jets Say Third Down Is Their Priority”, in The New York Times
Forms of underthrow
| third-person singular present | underthrows |
|---|---|
| present participle | underthrowing |
| past | underthrew |
| past participle | underthrown |
Origin of underthrow
From Middle English underthrowen, equivalent to under- + throw.
Questions about underthrow
- What does underthrow mean?
- Underthrow means to throw a pass that falls short of the receiver. (May take either the thrown pass or the receiver as its direct object.).
- What part of speech is underthrow?
- Underthrow is a verb.
- What is the past tense of underthrow?
- The past tense of underthrow is underthrew.
Words near underthrow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underthrow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underthrow.wav.
Cite this entry: “underthrow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underthrow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.